Chapter Eighteen – Back to Karate

At least he would not need to cycle to the farm though, Bill was taking him. Although this made him nervous too, Bill had never seemed that keen about Matt doing karate. Matt felt confident he was fit enough. The morning cycling and hill sprints with Dylan had made a huge difference. He could run and cycle like never before and it seemed that no matter how hard he trained he never felt sore anymore. He would get tired, but no longer got aching stiff muscles. Watching Jed try and keep up was encouraging too, if anything Jed had been the fitter and stronger of the two of them.

Bill leaned through the door. “Ready, Matt?”

Matt was silent on the drive to the farm. He focussed on remembering his kata and controlling his nerves. Both Gary and Dylan had explained the same thing, nerves were good. Nerves were a way to warm up the engine and get you to peak performance. The goal was to embrace your nerves and let them be positive energy.

Bill parked the car, looked over and put his hand on Matt’s shoulder. “You will be fine, Matt. You’ve trained hard and look sharp. I remember taking Simon to his first grading. He was crapping his pants, but it went fine.”

Matt smiled back. Really? Simon was scared? That did not seem possible. Matt looked around the dojo. There were several boys and a girl he did not know. Ricky was there, he smiled at Matt. It was a brief and slight smile. Ricky was focused on his own challenges. Matt felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hello, Matt. All set?” asked Dylan.

“I think so.”

“I know so,” said Dylan, “warm up. I need to do the same.”

After a few minutes, Gary arrived. All the students stopped their warm-up and turned to bow, Gary bowed back and walked onto the mat. “Line up,” called Gary.

Dylan walked to the front and stood next to Gary. “Two lines, juniors in the front. Rei.” The class bowed and they were off. Dylan called the exercises. Push-ups, sit-ups, squat-jumps, blocks, punches and kicks. Round and round they went, it was relentless. Matt struggled to keep up, but so did others around him. The breathing became louder, some started to gasp. People started to fall off the pace.

“Don’t stop,” called Dylan loudly, “slow down if you have to, but DO NOT STOP.”

Gary clapped his hands. “Last round, give it everything.” Matt took a big breath and launched into the push-ups with renewed vigour. He thought about the bicycle rides, he thought about the hill sprints and he thought about Rooster. To his great surprise, he started to pick up the rate and by the time the sit-ups started he was keeping up again. Matt pushed and pushed. He could do this.

“Well done. Two-minute recovery. Focus on your breathing.” Gary motioned to Dylan to follow him to a corner of the dojo where they discussed what they had seen. Matt could see that it was an intense discussion with much back and forth. They walked back to the front of the class.

“Line up,” called Dylan. The class lined up quickly.

“We will now run through some kata. When we get to a kata you do not know please bow and go to the back of the dojo. Kneel, focus on your breathing and prepare for individual kata. This can be a kata of your choice.”

“HAI,” chimed the class.

Matt was the first to bow out, he only knew two kata. One very simple one and one more complex one. He resolved to do the more complex kata when his time came. One by one more students came and knelt beside Matt. When only two students were left Dylan asked them to sit down. He looked over to the row of seated parents.

“They know too many kata,” he said, “it’s very annoying.” There was quiet laughter as Dylan turned to address the students. “When you are called please walk to the centre of the mat, bow and announce your kata. Perform your kata as you feel it should be done. It’s not a race.”

“HAI.”

Dylan held his hand out, “Matt.”

Matt closed his eyes, took a big breath and let it out slowly. He felt his breathing settle. He imagined himself fluently executing the first four moves of the kata. Matt opened his eyes, bowed his head to the floor before standing up and walking to the centre of the mat. He bowed again and announced his kata. Then with all the focus he could manage went through the moves he had practised so many times. He knew his kata was not perfect, he had felt himself wobble, put his feet in not quite the right places at times. But he was happy with the kicks and punches, they had felt good. There was a small round of applause when Matt did his final bow and turned to sit down. One by one the class performed their kata. The standard clearly improved as the grades got higher. Matt paid particular attention to Ricky, he looked very sharp indeed. When the kata were completed Gary instructed everyone to put their gloves on. Matt and another student were asked to come and get gloves from a box at the side of the dojo.

“Gloves,” thought Matt, “no one had mentioned gloves or fighting.”

Gary explained that the juniors would not fight each other. They would only fight more senior grades to ensure the sparring was controlled. Matt was the first to be asked to stand up, then Ricky was asked to face him. Gary explained that the fighting would be in two-minute rounds. One where Matt would attack Ricky as hard as he could and Ricky would only defend and show his counters, but with no contact. In the second round, Ricky would attack Matt and Matt would only defend, again Ricky was not to make contact. To Matt’s great surprise as soon as the fighting started the entire class started yelling encouragement, exhorting Matt to attack harder and more persistently. Matt was soon running out of breath and made no inroads through Ricky’s defences at all. After a short break, the second round began and Matt was soon overwhelmed. Ricky’s kicks and punches seemed to be coming from every angle and were constantly touching him. Dylan called for Ricky to ease back and for Matt to focus on blocking just the kicks. At the end of the fight Ricky walked up to Matt and patted him on the back. Matt walked to the back of the class and knelt with the others. He looked down. “Was it meant to go that badly?” he wondered. To his secret delight, Matt soon realised that many others were faring no better than he did. Once all the students had fought, Gary asked Dylan to glove up. Matt looked along the line of students and noted that a couple of them were looking decidedly uncomfortable. This time the fighting was a bit more back and forth. Each fight started gently before Dylan picked up the pace until the student was overwhelmed. There was, Matt was pleased to note, no brutal contact. All the fights ended with a smile and a pat on the back. The last fight was between Dylan and Ricky. Ricky bounced up and down with nervous energy. Gary asked Ricky to bring everything he had, with controlled contact to the head. Dylan and Ricky bowed and touched gloves. Ricky was fierce. Matt was in awe of his speed and intensity. Dylan though, looked remarkably composed. He seemed to be making Ricky miss by the smallest of margins. Occasionally Dylan would tap Ricky back, almost casually.

Before the start of the second round, Gary addressed Dylan and Ricky. “Ricky, that was a good effort. Keep it up. Dylan, apply a bit more pressure now, make him work to keep his composure.”

“HAI,” called both Ricky and Dylan.

They touched gloves. Immediately Ricky attacked as in the first round, but this time Dylan slid forward, brushed Ricky’s kick aside and punched him in the chest. It was not a super hard punch, it was more of a stiff arm held out as he came forward. But it caught Ricky off balance and he fell backwards. Ricky smiled and got up. Ricky was much more cautious about attacking now, he held back waiting for an opening. Dylan though was not waiting. He came forward with a jab, but the jab never landed. Instead, he caught Ricky with a kick to his midsection which bent Ricky about the middle, then the jab landed. Again it was not a hard punch, more of a strong push. But it was enough to drive Ricky’s head back and start him stumbling backwards. As Ricky stumbled Dylan dropped low and spun around, an outstretched leg whipped out Ricky’s legs and he fell to the mat. As Dylan had spun he caught Ricky’s outstretched arm. Dylan rolled onto his back and pulled Ricky’s arm to his chest with his legs holding Ricky down. Matt recognised this as the armbar he had just started learning. Ricky tapped Dylan on the leg and Dylan released Ricky’s arm and helped him to his feet. Ricky looked to the row of students at the back of dojo and held out his hands as if asking for understanding. They responded by chanting, “Go, Ricky, go,” over and over again. Dylan smiled, walked over to Ricky and gave him a quick hug before the fighting resumed. This time Dylan was much gentler. He still overwhelmed Ricky, but with very little contact and instead of taking him to the ground would catch him and put him back on his feet. When Gary called time on the fight Dylan held Ricky’s hand in the air. All the students cheered and clapped loudly. Matt looked over at the guests, it was very clear which ones were Ricky’s parents. They had been looking anxious but were now visibly relieved.

Dylan took the class through a warm down and handed them back to Gary. “Well done all of you. I was very impressed with your effort today and effort is indeed the currency of karate. You purchase your skills with effort. There is no question that each of you has made very good progress and I would be proud to put you up as a student of mine anywhere. One of the objectives of gradings is to get feedback on how we are going. Another objective is to see where we are going next. To look at the grades above us and wonder how we will get there. Ricky may be wondering this right now in fact.”

Ricky looked down at his feet while the class laughed. It was a friendly, encouraging laugh though. “As seniors, we have all been through Ricky’s experience. It is what motivated us to get better. It is what opened our eyes to what we might one day achieve. Each time I have a student grade for the first time.” Gary looked at Matt and smiled. “I make sure to transport myself back to that day. The day I forgot my kata! Matt, your first grading has been much better than mine.”

The class cheered and clapped loudly. “Thank you all for rewarding my effort with yours. Dylan and I will share our thoughts and you will each get your grading result at your next training.”

“LINE UP,” called Dylan loudly, “rei.” The class bowed together. Immediately discussions broke out amongst the students, some ran to parents. Dylan gave Matt a big hug and walked him over to Bill with his arm draped over his shoulder.

Bill held out his arms and hugged Matt. “Well done, Matt, really well done.”

Dylan tapped Matt on the shoulder. “Have a shower and get changed, then meet us around by the house. We will be waiting for you there with Lola!”

Matt smiled, what a lovely thought.

“Follow me, Bill,” said Dylan, “I’ll introduce you to the others before I get changed.”

Matt had a short shower, he was in a hurry to see Lola and Bess. When he opened the gate at the side of the house Bess looked up and sprinted to him with great urgency. Matt knelt and gave her a big hug and scratch. Lola, who was lying by Sandra, noticed Matt with Bess and scrambled to her feet. She ran flat out in awkward puppy style and launched herself at Matt’s face. Matt held one dog in each arm as they leaned on his chest and fought a mock battle. He noticed that everyone was looking at him as he started to get up. Bess and Lola started to play fight around his feet as he walked. He lifted his feet high taking care not to stand on them as he made his way to the table.

Gary put a chair at the head of the table. “Take a seat here, Matt. What would you like to drink?”

“Water thanks,” replied Matt.

“Good answer,” replied Gary, “that was part of your grading!”

“Hurry up and tell him,” exclaimed Sandra, “I can’t stand the suspense.”

Gary playfully cuffed Sandra on the back of the head. “Shush you,” he said.

“Well, Matt,” continued Gary, “we’ve had a discussion and after absolutely no argument whatsoever have decided that Lola should go home with you today and be your dog.” Matt looked at Bill. Bill was smiling and nodded. Matt grinned, he did not know what to say. Gary put his hand up to get Matt’s attention. “Tonight she can sleep in your laundry. Tomorrow I’ll bring her kennel in when I come to town. Dylan can take you through the training routine.”

Sandra leaned forward and looked sternly at Matt. “But, Matt, you have to bring her back for visits! Bess will miss her.”

“We’ll all miss her,” added Heather.

“Yep,” replied Matt sheepishly. He had no idea how he could bring her back though.

“Come on,” said Gary, “let’s get you started with some bedding and biscuits.” Matt and Bill followed Gary to the shed while Sandra and Allicia sat on the ground with Bess and Lola. Once the car was loaded up Gary whistled loudly. Bess came rocketing around the corner and ran up to Gary with Lola following in hot pursuit. Gary scooped up Lola in one hand. “Jump in the back, Matt, she can sit by your feet. Sorry, we don’t have a leash, Bill, not something we use on a farm!”

“No problem, Gary. Thank you so much for this and for helping Matt in general. I really appreciate it.”

“It’s a pleasure,” said Gary. Then leaning into Matt’s window added, “I meant what I said earlier. Your first grading was better than mine. Well done.” Gary tapped his hand on the car roof. “Drive carefully. Remember, no need to do the speed limit. Just leave the gate open, Dylan can shut it.”

Bill drove slowly down the driveway. “Well, Matt,” he began, “it has been a most interesting day.”

“Yep.” Matt was focussed on patting Lola with one hand while she looked him in the eyes and chewed gently on the other.

“That was very impressive today, Matt. You looked very good and I must say Dylan is almost a bit frightening.”

Matt looked up at Bill. “Gary is really, really frightening.”

Bill nodded. “I can believe that, Matt, for sure. I can also see why you want to do karate, it’s very impressive.”

Matt stared at Bill. “I wondered why you built the fence, you said it was to keep Jane in.”

Bill smiled. “It was a pretty dumb reason, but I forgot to think up a better one.”

“Jane will love Lola.”

“I certainly hope so, Matt, I certainly hope so.”

Matt pulled out his phone and sent a text to Jed. “Meet me at my house. MASSIVE news.”